Category: status updates

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The Wonderful Resource that is Paper Cat Press

long haired black cat
I don’t have any ready-to-post sketches of cats, so have a picture of my cat Scarlet.

I wish I had known about this site back at the end of February, when I got laid off from my day job and transitioned to making comics and art full-time. It would have made life easier.

But at least I found it now!

Paper Cat Press is a handy dandy website that aggregates links and shares new ones once a week. These links are for…

  • Calls for Submissions
  • New KickStarter Campaigns
  • New Webcomic Debuts
  • Grants and Scholarships
  • Workshops and Residencies

And a whole bunch of other stuff, all geared specifically towards comics artists and illustrators! All I can say is…

THANK THE GODS.

So in case you couldn’t tell, I am currently on the lookout for new opportunities for comics-making work.

Don’t get me wrong – the KickStarter for the Validation buttons has finished up just a few days ago. We far surpassed the asking goal of $100 and got $826 in funding! Holy banana pants!

But that money is specifically for KickStarter stuff – for fulfillment of orders and printing up the buttons we were raising funds for (and a sketchbook we unlocked as one of the stretch goals). That money will NOT go towards bills or food until all the backers have their rewards. And that could take a little while.

So that’s why I’m REALLY glad for sites like Paper Cat Press. They’re going to make looking for a paid gig SO much easier.

The first thing I’m going to apply for is a grant. Why? Because I want/need to take a residency at a comics place in Pittsburgh so I can do on-location research for Traveler’s Road, the story of two ladies traveling through a post-apocalyptic United States to find a lost friend. The lost friend in this story is supposed to be in Pittsburgh. I don’t live in the city, so I would REALLY like to just take a weekend, stay there, and draw what I need for the story. The grant can cover room and board, and if there’s enough left over, gas and art supplies.

However, I DID find another, different micro-grant (it’s micro because the grant is less than $1000, the usual minimum given in a grant). This micro-grant is called the Cupcake Award, and it’s given in association with CAKE – the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo. I’ll try for that grant first.

Wish me luck!

Thanks for Reading.

You. Are. Awesome.

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Bringing Blog Posts Back!

rathacon convention artist alley table 2017

Alright! I’m back from RathaCon in Athens, OH. Not a whole lot of sales were made, but lots of folks signed up for the email newsletter and, by the sounds of it, I got a comic shop in the area interested in consigning my books. Plus I got to meet an indie filmmaker looking for pitches (I’ll get to him in the next post), and a T-shirt designer who REALLY liked my Dia de la Gata card design and wanted to get that on a shirt. (I’ll get to that in the blog post after the one about the filmmaker.) Continue reading “Bringing Blog Posts Back!”

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Review Day Tuesday is Pushed Back (Again)

Y’all, this new episode of Review Day Tuesday is taking way too dang long to write and record for. I want to make it the best review I possibly can but JEEZ it’s hard.

There are other videos I want to make though, and these other videos would be faster and easier to do, plus they don’t require a ton of scripting or planning.

I’ll post one of these types of videos soon, and if I don’t have this Review Day Tuesday episode done after that, I may just drop the frickin’ series.

Because here’s the thing – video-making is a hobby. It’s not my job, and I don’t ever want it to be. I want it to be fun. And right now, Review Day Tuesdays are…not fun.

It’s not fun in the way I consider comics-making fun. When I make comics, even when I come across a challenge, I come up with a game-plan to tackle that challenge or I just go into it. It’s a chance to learn to me. Even the hard stuff is fun to do.

Right now, this Review Day Tuesday thing is just something I DREAD. I don’t like to do hobbies that give me a sense of DREAD. If I dread doing the thing, what would be the point of doing it?

I want to give it a little more time, though – sometimes it’s just the mood I’m in. Sometimes there’s a legit concern. I want to give it time and when I revisit the idea of Review Day Tuesday, I’ll see if it’s a legit concern, just the mood, or something more problematic.

In the meantime, I’m still updating The Case of the Wendigo, Validation, and the Extra ClothesPins Podcast. Check those out if you haven’t already.

Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.